Archive | September, 2013

The latest round of consolidation in the scrapbook industry is continuing this week with the announcement that Advantus has acquired “substantially all of the assets” of punch and office supply manufacturer McGill, Inc.

According to the announcement, McGill products will start shipping from Advantus’s headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida before the end of the month.

“We look forward to manufacturing and distributing the McGill products and building on the good name of McGill, Inc., with its reputation for quality products,” said Kevin Carpenter, President of Advantus.

“We at McGill are excited about the acquisition by Advantus Corp. This will be great for all of our customers and allow the McGill product lines to grow in the office products and craft markets,” said Wayne Schwartzman, President of McGill, Inc. Continue Reading →

Webster’s Pages and October Afternoon have announced a partnership in which Webster’s Pages will take over distribution of a large portion of October Afternoon’s catalog of product lines.

While October Afternoon will maintain shipping of their Daily Flash lines, and their previously released collections, all of their new paper collections will be shipping in the future from Webster’s Pages. This will start with the Silent Night collection, in late September or early October. Other upcoming collections include Public Library (mid to late October) and Treasure Map (December 1st). Customer service for the lines they ship will also be handled by Webster’s Pages.

A rep for Webster’s Pages told Scrapbook Update that the companies will also be producing some of their lines together, an arrangement that is becoming increasingly common in the industry as companies look to reduce costs by partnering on production runs. Continue Reading →

According to web postings, a new version of Project Life will debut on HSN tomorrow during Lisa Bearnson’s appearances on the network.

The “Just Add Color” edition of Project Life is more than just a new set of card designs for Project Life. It’s actually an entirely new iteration of the project.

Until now, Project Life has been based essentially on two standard sizes – 4×6 and 3×4 – of cards with some accommodation made for 4×4 square instagram pictures. The “Just Add Color’ kit adds a new size to the Project Life repertoire, 2×2, by subdividing 4×4 pockets.

Advantus has announced that they intend to discontinue the use of the Cropper Hopper brand when their license to use it expires in December 2013.

After what the company describes as “a lengthy transition period that will extend into at least mid-2014,” Advantus will no longer represent the Cropper Hopper brand. The brand will revert back to the control of Cropper Hopper founder Scott Smith, from whom they’ve licensed the name for the past 10 years.

According to the announcement, Cropper Hopper items may continue to be ordered as usual by the company’s customers, and there will be no interruption in customer service during the branding transition. The company says it plans to continue to continue carrying “the majority” of the products that are currently in the Cropper Hopper line, under a rebranding that will be launched at the Craft & Hobby Association 2014 show in January.

“We know Scott will continue to do great things in the industry, and we wish him all the best. We appreciate our customers’ continued support of our product lines and look forward to introducing our new storage brand at the CHA show”, said Kevin Carpenter, President of Advantus.

Tuesday, September 17th will be another 24 hour craft day on HSN. Among the day’s events will be three hours of “Papercrafting with Lisa Bearnson” – and we’ve got a sneak peek of what she’ll be bringing you!

Among the offerings Lisa will be showing on HSN on Tuesday will be a layout kit, a gift card holder kit, layered stickers, and a mini book kit. There’s a couple of big names associated with the products, as well!

One of those big names is Tiffani Smith, who designed the gift card kit called “Nifty Gifties” that Lisa will be showing on the event:

It’s time to finish out Scrapbook Update’s CHA Top Ten Hot Picks list!

To see all the hot picks posted so far, visit this link. I’ll also publish a summary list for easy reference after this article goes up.

So here, last but not least, is the final hot pick for CHA Summer 2013 (aka Create-n-Connect)…

As time passes after a show, you get perspective on what you saw on the show floor. The reality distortion field fades, the blinding glare of “shiny and new” goes away, and you start to look with a more practical eye at what you’ve seen.

It’s under that practical gaze, the one that looks at what is eminently usable from the new products as you are filling your own shopping cart, that the CHA Summer 2013 products from sister companies Echo Park and Carta Bella stand out.

So let’s start with the Echo Park offerings…

First up, Echo Park added to their collection of Mini Themes, with several more designs in the bright and cheery style they are known for: